The Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’) has, by way of A.P (DIR Series) Circular No.22 dated January 4, 2023 bearing reference RBI/2022-23/160 (‘Circular’), brought about certain changes with respect to the reporting of foreign investment in India in Single Master Form (‘SMF’) on the Foreign Investment Reporting and Management System (‘FIRMS’) portal. Below is a summary of the key changes that are being implemented by virtue of this Circular:

i.     The forms submitted on the FIRMS portal will be auto-acknowledged with a time stamp and an auto-generated e-mail will be sent to the applicant. The forms will be duly verified by the AD Bank within five working days based on the uploaded mandatory documents;

ii.    Delayed reporting, if any, will be identified by the system;

iii.    For forms filed with a delay which is less than or equal to three years, the AD Bank will approve the same, subject to the payment of late submission fee (‘LSF’). However, if the delay is greater than three years, the approval will be subject to compounding of the contravention. The applicant may, thereafter, approach the RBI with their application for compounding;

iv.    The system will calculate the LSF and an email, with the amount and the deadline for payment to the concerned regional office (‘RO’) of the RBI, will be delivered to the applicant and the concerned RO;

v.     Thereafter, when the LSF is realised, the concerned RO will update the status on the FIRMS portal and the same would be communicated to the applicant as well as through a system of generated e-mail, which will also be visible on the FIRMS portal; and

vi.    In case of rejection of forms, the remarks given by the AD Bank will be communicated to the applicant through a system generated e-mail and the same can also be viewed on the FIRMS portal.